Rizla Suzuki review mixed Laguna weekend

Loris Capirossi brought his Rizla Suzuki home in tenth position at Laguna Seca after initially being given ninth in the classification. Video evidence was used to show that Mika Kallio crossed the line just in front of Capirossi by only 0.001 seconds. Capirossi had battled hard through the whole race to preserve his position after a poor first few laps had cost him dearly in the standings, but unfortunately lost out on a hard-fought ninth in the final metre.

Bautista was yet again the victim of another incident as Aleix Espargaró touched Suzuki’s Spanish rider at the start of the third lap. Bautista had already got into a good rhythm and had passed a couple of other riders before his race came to an abrupt end for the second week in succession.

Loris Capirossi:

“I think we did our job today because our rhythm is about half-a-second slower than qualifying and that’s where we were. I tried to do a different line on every one of the 32 laps to try and improve my time in the third section, but I struggled with front feeling. The race was quite tough and at the end I got in a fight with Kallio and Espargaró. On the last lap I tried to close the door to protect my place, but it seems he got me right on the line. I thought I was in front but the video shows he beat me. I don’t really care whether it was ninth or tenth because it’s not good enough and we have to go up the leader board!”

Álvaro Bautista:

“I had a poor start because the bike wheelied too much and I lost some positions, but in the first couple of laps I felt good and was able to pass some other riders. I felt good on the bike and at the start of the third lap I passed Espargaró on the first corner and as I made the normal line to the second turn, which is two consecutive corners, he was in the middle of the last turn and hit me in the body and I crashed. This is very disappointing because I felt really very good and had been able to overtake other riders quite easily. It has been a bad start for me here in Laguna Seca, but we must make sure we keep the hard work going at the next races.”